LAST Sunday nearly 40 Christians from the Churches Together in Redditch group took part in a creation walk to highlight the issue of climate change in the run up to the COP 26 conference in Glasgow.
The walk, from Bordesley Abbey to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Beoley Road, was the idea came of their newly formed Laudato Si – or praise be – group.
The name comes from a letter issued by Pope Francis in 2015 in which he wrote about global social and environmental problems.
He too will be attending COP 26 in November.
The walk started at the Abbey ruins where they reflected on how in tune with nature the lifestyle of the monks was in medieval times compared with our current way of life which is destroying the planet.
The route continued to Sainsbury’s where they prayed for a greater recognition of the importance of ethical shopping before walking up Prospect Hill to Grosvenor House and Rachel McLean MP’s office.
Here John and Jackie Marsh from Emmanuel Church led the group on the need for decisive action and bold decisions by MPs.
A prayer highlighting the importance of local businesses to act responsibly was led by the Rev Francis Moloney from St Stephen’s Church from where the group moved to the Town Hall to emphasise the need for local action on climate change.
The walk concluded in the garden of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church where parishioners and members of the Laudato Si group reflected on the impact of climate change on future generations and made a personal commitment to take action to help combat it.
Jim Quinn, one of the organisers, said: “We are prepared to do what we can and call upon our leaders, local and national, to do the right thing and make the necessary bold decisions.”
